Buying A Truck....

The absolute thing that you need and you will be sucessful is this fact....

I wish you could actually get it in writng but that was the old days..shippers ''honored contracts''..Today it is ''cut throat''...sad but true...

2 main ingredients....

1- will you have enough work to produce the miles and revenue.

2- will the rate be locked in for 2-3 years at 1.50 or more..

If they can not give you the definite answer to this and be loyal then i would never go into it again.It would be ''to risky''...

example::

I locked into a run for 2 years (suppose to be) for 2.15 mile plus fuel.I ran kansas city to el-paso 2 times a week drop and hook.(NO DEADHEAD)..1000 miles down and back 2 times a week..(great money run)..

4000 X 2.15 = 8,600 BUCKS TO THE TRUCK GROSS - 35%(LANDSTAR)

After 1 year it all went to crap because it was stolen from me from another outfit..(cheaper)...NOTHING IS FOR SURE...

Got a call yesterday on the exact same run...i couldn't believe it....ready for this...lmao....mind you same run,same broker...

4000 miles x 1.45 = 5,800 - 35% (landstar)...

i laughed....

My point is nothing is written in stone in trucking business.so to me afater 20 years it has become very risky business...there are to gurentees like i thought for years...

its hard to base anything on anything anymore in the ''business''..its all subject to change very fast and day to day..

 

kool....i sold out and took the money and ran like hell...lmao..

 

I'm still trying to get mine sold,.........

 

Waterloo got banned? Dang it. I liked reading his informative posts.

 

Yeah,..I wonder what happened,...I hope it was only a one week hand slap for him,....He had some great insight into things,...

 

I can believe he got banned.. They are really sensitive here. Oh yeah I Still have my Bucket for-sale I read on a load board somewhere that it will pay 1.45m So how can you not be making at least 18k a year to yourself.. Thats more than enough to live off of Stop being greedy and buy this trailer from me.

 

I'm not sure,...But I do believe that the Moderators here are very fair with enforcement of the site rules,....So there must have been a good reason,..

 

I think your numbers are basically fine, Emo, and I think you and I share a lot of the same risk hazards of outsmarting ourselves. You've said some good things about the state of the industry, but I don't think it's incumbent on you to justify that trucking is here to stay and that the economy will pick back up. If those weren't givens I dont think we'd be here.

You are taking the raw business of it to heart as good research and produced some good results. The other part of the research, which we're here ostensibly to do, is getting feedback from others who are doing it.

It seems they are saying don't, as a blanket statement. Along with you I tend to reject summary conclusions such as this. But the overwhelming theme amongst them all is the two big problems leading some to that conclusion which is lack of freight and low paying freight. For my part, I have to assume that these problems are accurate. It's coming from the O/O's, the L/O's, and the co drivers as well. So I believe it is real.

This is why I say you have to run your (very good) numbers, but with the actual problems that are facing the industry. If people could reliably find 3000 miles a week, then the low paying freight wouldn't be as much of a problem. And if the freight paid well but there wasn't much of it, that would be ok too. But the problem is both occurring at the same time.

So I say, run your figures for the reality that the research has provided. I definitely wouldn't use last year's mileage figures.

For me, there seems to be two ways to run the numbers, cursory and in-depth. For whatever reason, like you, if I look at a run, and see what I would take from it, it looks good. When you use the calculators which force you to enter ALL your expenses penny by penny, it never comes out as good. And then you're still talking theory.

So, let's say you have $5 in your pocket and you need to get dinner for the kids and your car is on "E". You can say well if I put in a gallon of gas, I can get eggs and a loaf of bread. Or, I can get 1/2 a gallon of gas and maybe get some cheese too. Ok, so the trip works out and you got something to eat. This is fine for a day, maybe 2 days, but it's no way to live and eventually some other bill comes up or something some money needs to be spent on. Rather than planning a brief trip to the store for food in a relatively safe radius, you have to think of it more like planning to send a man to the moon, and account for everything as if it is life and death.

I don't think you will fail, heck you may have a fleet of 10 trucks in a couple years. I don't know, but the point is you don't either.

I say do it and never said don't. I am. I'm just going to take the risk very seriously and not count any eggs before they hatch.